CALF_News_October_November_2019

34 CALF News • October | November 2019 • www.calfnews.net What's in a Name? Marketing for the Next Generation A lfalfa, apples, canola, corn, cotton, papaya, potatoes, soybeans, squash and sugar beets.What do these 10 crops have in common? You guessed it. These are the only 10 crops in the United States that have the options to be grown with genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds. How many of us have walked down the grocery aisles and seen the non- GMO label on a can of tomatoes? This is fear-based marketing. There are no GMO tomatoes so there is no chance that it can be a GMO, yet some are labeled “non-GMO” as though they could be. Is it wrong? Let’s examine. We sold our beef and eggs at our local farmers market for a couple of years. We have grain-finished beef that we’re very proud of. There was a fellow farmer sell- ing his grass-finished beef and he would often come and chat. I pride myself on being open-minded. I believe we’re all individuals and am so thrilled to have all the choices we have. What works for me doesn’t necessar- ily work for everyone. I pride myself on being inclusive and am content being different from the next person. I firmly believe in the concept,“You do you and I’ll do me,” especially when it comes to food.We live in one of the most choice- oriented countries in the world. I’m glad there are people growing organic. I’m glad there are people raising conventional. I’m glad there are grass-finished and grain- finished and everything in between. With that said, this particular farmer walked up to my booth, saw I was selling grain-finished beef and asked me why I was there. This was one of my first markets and I was somewhat taken aback. I could tell this was a farmer and initially felt a kinship with this man before even being introduced … until he said that. What was I doing there? I’m selling our farm-fresh beef and eggs, trying to benefit our farm and consumers. on corn that is grown and harvested on our own farm. These animals are in our care from beginning to end and are treated with the upmost care. “We use a vet to sonogram so that we know when the most optimal harvest time is for each so the eating experience is the absolute best that it can be.We have three generations being supported on our farm and we’re very proud of that." “Corn-finished beef is terrible,” came the reply. This was followed by a 10- to 15-minute dialogue where he chronicled everything from how his beef was the only option, how buying beef at the grocery store shouldn’t happen – it should simply be thrown away – and why he would never refer people to me should they be desiring a grain-finished product. I was so shocked. I was prepared to be attacked at the farmers market, but never in my life did I prepare myself for that attack from a fellow producer. This man berated everything we did on our farm. He told me that he would never tell someone to buy beef out of the store. While I'm sure I didn’t handle it the way I probably should have, this is how I replied to him. 1. Please stop telling people to not buy beef out of the grocery store. I am 100 percent certain that our beef (and his!) winds up on a supermarket shelf. I am 100 percent certain that beef is safe to eat. I am 100 percent certain that a farmer at a farmers market telling people to quit buying beef in a supermarket is helping nobody. 2. I’m thrilled to have the options we have in America. I’m thrilled to be able to work alongside feedyards with thousands of head in them. I’m thrilled to be able to work beside the small operations. I’m thrilled to be able to have all the choices in the stores that we have. By Kelsey Pagel Contributing Editor Grain-finished doesn’t mean they didn’t spend the majority of their lives on grass. “You’re not going to have any luck,” he replied. Again, I’m dumbstruck. It was fairly early into my first market and, while I hadn’t pocketed hundreds of dol- lars, I was happy with how things were going. I had already talked to several people about what we did on our farm. I had sold product. I had given business cards. I was thrilled. I did the thing most of us would do, I believe, and asked,“Why is that?” “Because your beef isn’t grass-fin- ished,” he explained. This reply wasn’t what I expected. I expected something along the lines of how horrible I did with making our booth approachable and desirable. (It’s hard to display frozen beef on a table in the middle of a hot summer Saturday morning without bad things happening!) I was expecting anything, really, except a direct attack on our product. “No it’s not,” I responded,“and we take great pride in that. Our beef is finished